Deven Bharti appointed as 'special commissioner of Mumbai police'

Senior Indian Police Service officer Deven Bharti was on Wednesday appointed as 'special commissioner of Mumbai police' which is a newly created post, an official said. The state Home Department issued the appointment order, the official added.

IPS officer Vivek Phansalkar is currently the Mumbai police commissioner. Bharti, an IPS officer of 1994 batch, is considered to be close to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He was Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) when the BJP leader was the chief minister of the state from 2014 to 2019. Subsequently, he was shifted to the Anti-Terrorism Squad on promotion as additional Director General of Police.

Bharti was shunted out when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government came to power in 2019. He was made joint managing director of the Maharashtra State Security Corporation, considered to be a relatively insignificant posting.

On December 13, 2022, Bharti was replaced by joint commissioner (traffic) Rajvardhan, and since then he had been awaiting new posting along with former ATS chief Vinit Agarwal, former Thane police commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh and former Anti-Corruption Bureau chief Prabhat Kumar, the official said.